May 6, 2014 – The presidents of the four postal employee unions – the APWU, the National Association of Letter Carriers, the National Rural Letter Carriers Association and the NPMHU – have written to members of the House of Representatives, urging them to vote against a postal bill drafted by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA). The bill is scheduled for consideration by the committee on Wednesday, May 7.

“We write on behalf of nearly 500,000 postal employees who live and work in every Congressional District in America to urge you to oppose the so-called ‘Administration’s Postal Reform Act of 2014,’” the presidents wrote. “If you serve on the Oversight and Government Reform (OGR) Committee, we ask that you vote against the legislation on Wednesday. If you do not serve on the committee, we urge you to express your opposition to the bill.”

“The legislation drastically reduces service,” said APWU President Mark Dimondstein. “It ends Saturday mail delivery and promotes contracting out of retail services — including in outside retail establishments. It fails to protect service standards, and fails to address in any meaningful way the cause of the Postal Service’s manufactured financial crisis,” he said.

“Our organizations are committed to working with leaders in both parties to strengthen the Postal Service,” the letter says. “Unfortunately, the bill before the OGR Committee on Wednesday would severely weaken it. We urge your strong opposition.”

Sept. 19, 2013—The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, which has Postal Service oversight, held the first of two hearings today on the flawed postal bill, S. 1486, introduced by committee chairman Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) and ranking member Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK).

“If passed, this bill would set the Postal Service on downward spiral,” NALC President Fredric Rolando said, “by calling for the slow dismantling of Postal Service’s retail, mail processing and last-mile delivery networks that are crucial for the booming e-commerce sector, while maintaining the misguided 2006 postal reform law mandate to pre-fund future retiree health benefit costs decades in advance.”

Today’s 2½-hour hearing focused mainly on rates and revenue. Among those called to testify before today’s hearing were Postmaster General Patrick Donahue, Postal Regulatory Commission Chairman Ruth Goldway, USPS Inspector General David Williams, American Postal Workers Union President Cliff Guffey and National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association President Jeanette Dwyer.

APWU President Cliff Guffey will testify before a House Subcommittee on June 15 about the retail and mail processing network of the Postal Service. The hearing will be broadcast on the committeeâ€™s Web site beginning at 1:30 p.m.

The hearing will focus on the â€œextent that these networks need to be right-sized to meet diminishing mail volume,â€ said Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL), chairman of the Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service and Labor Policy.

Rep. Ross called the hearing to examine whether â€œthe Postal Service has excess mail processing infrastructure, whether the Postal Service is moving fast enough to right-size that network, options for creating a modern processing network, and the growth of alternative access to postal services.â€

He has been an outspoken critic of the USPS and postal employees. At an April 5 House hearing, he blamed labor costs for the Postal Serviceâ€™s financial problems, and recently said the Postal Service should have more freedom to close facilities.

Instead of cutting service, Guffey said, the Postal Service must expand its services to fill needs emerging because of digital communications.

â€œIt would be tragic to dismantle the postal retail infrastructure and lose the opportunity to improve the postal services that millions of Americans rely on,â€ he said.

The APWU President urged members to focus on legislative action. â€œIt is critical that members contact their U.S. representatives and seek support for measures that will get the USPS back on track to fiscal solvency.â€

Postal news around the world

Australia Post has revealed that its digital mailbox service left beta testing and has been formally released. The digital mail service, intended to be a more secure version of email for bills and other important documents, went into public beta last year. An Australia Post spokeswoman said the postal service continues to add providers supporting […]

Deutsche Post DHL is now offering German households the chance to have their own individual parcel boxes installed, to receive parcels when they are out. The German national postal operator has described it as the “greatest development” in the mail industry since the humble mailbox came along. Read more: DHL hails household parcel boxes “greatest […]

Canada Post CEO Deepak Chopra spoke with Michael Enright on The Sunday Edition with Michael Enright this morning: In 1867, the Dominion of Canada named Sir Alexander Campbell, a Father of Confederation, as the country’s first Postmaster General.

FedEx has said it has now fully integrated two businesses it acquired in India to strengthen its domestic delivery and logistics services in the subcontinent. The company acquired the logistics, distribution and express businesses of AFL Pvt Ltd (AFL) and affiliate business Unifreight India Pvt. Ltd (UFL) back in February 2011. The acquisition included AFL […]

Australia Post chairman John Stanhope said a user-pays postal system was a viable option after the company’s letter operations ­suffered a $218 million loss last year because the public had sent fewer letters than ever. The user-pays model means residents would pay an annual bill in addition to the stamp price, which increased from 60¢ […]